The defending champions of the B.C. Hockey League have been dethroned.
The Prince George Spruce Kings' dream of retaining the title as BCHL playoff champions from the day they were first crowned in 2019 was shattered on the ice Tuesday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. The Penticton Vees delivered the bad news when they completed the sweep in their best-of-seven Interior Conference semifinal series with a 3-2 victory in Game 4.
The Kings gave everything they had in front of their home fans to try to extend the series but could not find a way to beat the top-ranked Vees, the league regular-season champs, who exposed the Spruce Kings mistakes throughout the series and found ways to turn those errors into goals.
Now the Vees are going to the third round, full of confidence after racking up eight straight wins in the postseason, four at the expense of the Spruce Kings.
“There’s nothing better than winning on the road because it’s only the guys in the room, the coaching staff, the trainers, and it feels amazing,” said Vees winger Luc Wilson. “To do it in four and to do it on the road, it’s a real good feeling for our group.
“We knew they were going to come out hard and they had their backs against the wall, so for us to be able to weather the storm and come out of the first (period) with a tie, we were happy with that. We went into the second period with a different mindset and kind of took over the game there.”
The Vees protected their third period lead well and time ran out on the Spruce Kings. The Vees will now await the winner of the West Kelowna-Salmon Arm series in the Interior Conference final, which starts April 29 in Penticton.
Vees head coach and general manager Fred Harbinson knew his team dodged several bullets in that opening 20 minutes. The Vees looked tired and the Spruce Kings were ravenous but unable to sink their teeth into what they really craved, a lead on the scoreboard.
“That’s where the game was won for us because we easily could have been down two or three in that first period,” said Harbinson. “You’ve got to give them credit.. They came out guns-a-blazin’ and weren’t ready to quit and we looked a bit off. We were lucky to be tied 1-1 and as the game gets tighter and tighter the nice thing about being up 3-0 in the series is you go into that third period and you know we had a little bit to give and they don’t and we found a way to get that next goal.”
Two Penticton goals in the third period sealed the Spruce Kings’ fate.
Wilson stripped the puck away from Kings centre Ty Gagno as he attempted to move it out of the corner deep in Prince George territory. Wilson spun a pass to Thomas Pichette just outside the crease and Pichette dropping to one knee as he let got the shot for the go-ahead goal at 1:56. Just before the midway mark of the period, Mason Poolman fired a shot from the point that was tipped in by Adam Eisele for a 3-1 Penticton lead.
The Kings found it difficult to get set up in the Penticton zone for any sustained stretches and they had less than two minutes to play when Rowan Miller scored his second goal of the game with goalie Aaron Trotter on the bench to make it a one-goal game, but that’s as close as they got to penetrating the Vees defences.
“This whole series, our whole team gave it our all and worked hard and, honestly, I think we deserved a couple bounces on our side, I think we outplayed them a bit at times,” said Kings winger Nick Rheaume.. “It was our last shot and we started the game the way we wanted to and that was good.
“We lost to the best team in the league and we know that. That being said, I wouldn’t trade any guys on our team for any one of them. We’re a family here and memories are going to last forever.”
The Vees seem to have made it a habit of taking advantage of other team’s mistakes and they did that on the game’s first goal five minutes in. Luc Laylin was caught just inside the Kings blueline along the boards by a hard-charging Eisele and the Vees centre poked the puck into the clear and caught up to it, creating a 2-on-1 chance and Eisele found linemate Bradly Nadeau with a perfect pass to the opposite circle. The New Brunswick native fired on the fly into the top of the net behind Trotter.
The Kings gained some momentum off a power play and took the play to the Vees for much of the period,. They were ahead on the shot count 11-3 when Simon Labelle gained the zone and got the puck back to pointman Nick Marciano, whose shot-pass was caught by the stick blade of Miller, standing in the slot and he scored on a backhander to tie the game.
“They just capitalized on their chances and there’s nothing we can do about it now,” said Miller. They’re a very strong team and so are we. This series could have gone either way but they were able to put it in the back of the net and unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalize on all the chances we had.”
Shots on net were hard to come by for both teams in the second period. Probably the best chance of the period came while the Vees were playing shorthanded. Stefano Bottini, in his first game back from a suspension, chipped the puck off the boards and got behind defenceman Josh Wright on a breakaway up the right wing. Bottini got a good shot away but Trotter was ready for it and got his trapper in the way to deflect the puck over the net.
The Kings came closest to breaking the deadlock on a power play halfway through the period. Rheaume, looking for his third goal of the postseason, had the puck on his stick in the slot but his low labelled backhander was saved by Kaeden Lane, who was excellent throughout the series, as were his defencemen, who moved the puck to exit the zone the zone quickly and efficiently.
Not only did they gave up the fewest goals of any BCHL team in the regular season but the Vees also scored more than any other team and that ability to dominate in both ends showed in the series.
“Credit to Penticton, everyone knows if you want to go to the finals you’ll have to go through Penticton and our guys played hard, they should have no shame,” said Kings head coach Alex Evin.
“We made a few too many mistakes but we’re not going to dwell on that. The guys that are coming back are going to learn a lot from a series like that and our group should be proud. They were a hardworking team, a good bunch of kids and they showed up every day to train and work hard and I’m happy with how that part went.”
Considering all trials and tribulations that came with the two-year pandemic, which wiped out the BCHL playoffs the previous two years, the quarantines and clusters of infections, combined with the November flood that interrupted or delayed the season, it’s been a trying time for junior hockey teams. The Spruce Kings began this season with much the same lineup from the team that won the Chilliwack pod in the spring of 2021 and that continuity and sense of togetherness made it easier for Evin to take his team to a fourth-place finish in 2021-22 and an extended postseason into the second round of playoffs after a six-game series win over Cranbrook in the first round.
“I’ve had a lot of these kids for two or there years now as coach and it’s kind of funny to think about what we all went through the last few years” said Evin. “The pod season was something, and I’m just glad our 20-year-olds got a 95 per cent normal season and they got to go out the right way.”
Due to graduation and/or college commitments, eight and possibly nine Spruce Kings played their last junior hockey game Tuesday, including forwards Rheaume (UMass-Lowell), Miller (Alaska-Anchorage), Laylin (St Thomas) and captain Kolton Cousins, as well as defencemen Dylan Schives, Josh Wright and Nick Marciano (Princeton), and goalie Trotter (St. Thomas).
“I’d go to war with this team any day,” said Trotter, who missed the first two games of the series with a head injury. “Best of luck to everyone in that locker room, it’s a great group of guys and the sky’s the limit for them.”
Winger Simon Labelle is age-eligible to return to the Kings but has a scholarship offer from Colgate University in the works that might cut short his junior career. If Labelle does come back, that would give the Kings a chance to return 12 regulars next season.
“We’re going to have a good core group returning that we can build on, but the whole objective every year is to move guys up the hockey ladder and we’re doing that again with lots of guys graduating to college next year,” said Kings general manager Mike Hawes.
“That’s something everybody in he organization can take pride in, for sure. Recruiting is going well for next year and that’s an ongoing process, mixed in with the returning guys we’re going to have next year and we look for another exciting season.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Kings and their fans in a crowd of 943 got a scare six minutes into the second period when Schives, one of their top defencemen, led a rush into the Penticton end and got into a footrace with Poolman. The two players went shoulder to shoulder and Schives crashed to the ice and hit hard into the end boards. He needed some help from athletic therapist Mitchell Karapita but Schives shook it off and after a brief rest was back patrolling the blueline… The Kings have invited 118 players to their annual spring tryout camp this weekend starting Friday morning at RMCA. Camp scrimmages are scheduled throughout the day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
BCHL playoffs
Interior Conference semifinal
Prince George Spruce Kings. vs. Penticton Vees
(Vees win best-of-seven series 4-0)
Game 4
Tuesday summary
Vees 3 at Spruce Kings 2
First Period
1. Penticton, B.Nadeau 4 (Eisele) 4:54
2. Prince George, Miller 4 (Marciano, Labelle) 15:13
Penalties – Simpson Pen (hooking) 8:33, Miller PG (holding) 17:33.
Second Period
No scoring.
Penalties - LeFranc PG (high-sticking) 0:21, Richter Pen (holding) 7:55.
Third Period
3. Penticton, Pichette 2 (Wilson) 1:56
4. Penticton, Eisele 4 (Poolman, J.Nadeau) 9:44
5. Prince George, Miller 5 (Wright, Laylin) 18:19
Penalties – Rheaume PG (boarding) 11:12, Laylin PG (match, game misconduct) 20:00.
Shots on goal by
Penticton 10 8 12 -30
Prince George 14 6 9 -29
Goal - Penticton, Lane (W,8-1); Prince George, Trotter (L,3-4).
Power plays – Pen: 0-3; PG: 0-2
Referees – Steve Brown, Jake Podann; Linesmen – Blair Scott, Rob Connolly.
Attendance – 943.
